Staff Picks 9-30-21

Danielle Crocco
Marketing Consultant
Roots Brewing Company
If you haven’t been to Roots Brewing Company in Oneonta, you need to go. It is one of my favorite places to relax and have a drink.

The staff is so nice and attentive. They have a wonderful variety of beers, and cocktails as well as some tasty bites to eat.

My favorite thing to get is the June Shine hard kombucha. It’s a must try if you haven’t had it already!
The atmosphere is relaxing with comfy chairs and high tops for seating. I am usually sitting outside, trying to enjoy it as much as possible before the winter gets here! They are open Friday, Saturday, Monday, and occasionally on Sundays!

Kevin Limiti
Reporter
Karaoke Night at the Black Oak Tavern
In my humble opinion, the best place for a night out in Oneonta, or probably anywhere else in the area, is the Black Oak Tavern.

A lot of that is because they are one of the few places in the area that regularly hosts live music that appeals to the tastes of someone like me, who is into punk and hard rock mostly.

But what you may not know is that apart from the live shows and the previously mentioned open mic night on Mondays, karaoke is on at full swing every Wednesday, from 10 p.m. to close.

For a weeknight, Wednesdays always end up getting packed for karaoke, and it’s not hard to imagine why. There’s an energy in the room that makes it so much fun. Just like open mic, everyone is super supportive and willing to sing anything and everything.

I heard songs from Subline, Amy Winehouse, Carly Simon, Britney Spears and many others. There was a wide variety of genres that people were singing.

And the best part about it is that everyone, almost without exception, is really good. But don’t let that discourage you. Arguably karaokes are even more fun when the singers aren’t so great. Take from that what you will and see you there!

Larissa Ryan
Office Manager
Baking at home
As the weather cools and turns to fall, it’s the perfect season for baking. It warms up the kitchen, and gives me something to do while I listen to podcasts.

Sadly, I am nowhere near being an experienced baker. I’ve been trying but it’s slow progress for me. Which is why I picked up a scone kit from the Fly Creek Cider Mill over the summer.

All the dry ingredients are already there, just add butter and milk. Of course the butter is a bit challenging if you don’t soften it first. But I like to do mindless things while I listen to podcasts, so I was just standing there scraping shavings off the hunk of butter until it was all mixed in. Then just add the milk, mix and scrape it into a greased pan and it’s ready to go in the oven for the next 18 minutes or so.

After that it’s just waiting until the timer goes off.

Once the scones are done you can either wait for it to cool and eat it with whipped cream, or you can be ambitious and make Devonshire cream (a recipe included with the scone kit), which is sort of like a light frosting and is delicious. All you need is heavy cream, cream of tartar, and some powdered sugar. Then of course a bowl and, if you don’t like whipping by hand, an electric beater.

Once the cream’s been whipped to a soft peak you can cut out your piece of scone and put the Devonshire cream on top and enjoy.

Just don’t make the mistake I did and put all the cream on the scones at once because if you want to warm them up later well, lets just say the soft peak state of the cream does not survive the microwave.

Well, that’s one way I beat the Autumn chill and get delicious goodies.